Krista's Kitchen

Farm girl turned city girl turned suburban mom. My degree is in Family and Consumer Science Education...that's "home ec" to the old school crowd. While I've spent a good deal of time as both a student and a teacher exploring the ins and outs of food and nutrition, baking, and meal planning, I credit countless hours in the kitchen with my mom and 10 years of 4-H with providing the foundation for my knowledge of all things food and my love of cooking.

In Case You Don't Have One Yet: My Go-To Cookbook

All of the basics and then some...

I'm all about the crock pot dinner!

Meet the Mother of all Fix-it-and-Forget-It Cookbooks!

Here's What I'm Cooking With....

The Anolon Professional Hard Anodized Nonstick 12-Piece Cookware Set. After 2 years of putting this set to the test EVERY DAY, it is holding up beautifully!
If you're in the market for new cookware...this is a great value! Right now it's marked down from $803.00 to $179.99. WOW!

Wednesday, January 18, 2017

I'm excited to share a new family favorite! These pizza bombs are easy to assemble (my kiddos like to get in on the action for this step), come together quickly, and there are rarely leftovers. We don't eat like this often- we try to provide a lean protein, vegetable, and usually a grain (preferably a whole grain) at our evening meal, but this is a definitely a treat when it makes it's way into the rotation. In fact, I just made it last week, at my daughter's request, for her birthday dinner. It would be a perfect appetizer recipe too. For instance, I'd bet that these would be a hit at your Super Bowl party!

It's a little embarrassing to say how I came up with this recipe early in December. I was cleaning out our freezer. Which, in my defense, I do regularly. Like, honestly. I pull out expired items, defrost, clean, and re-organize. I swear, I do this! During my search for expired items, I came across an open bag of Rhodes dinner rolls. The package clearly read that they were "BEST BY" 10/18/13. 2013! Really!!!?!? I must've been shoving them back into my freezer for years....

***SIDEBAR ALERT*** (I promise it relates to this post.)

Here's a little piece of trivia about me: I'm a risk-taker. I don't mind "living on the edge", so to speak. This doesn't mean that I want to sky dive or bungee jump (at least not anymore) and I certainly have no desire to go on "Fear Factor". Becoming the mother of 3 has given me a greater sense of self-preservation than I possessed in my earlier years. Plus, after 3 pregnancies and a little age on me, my equilibrium and ability to "plunge" and "spin" without a care or consequence has been strangely compromised. Not sure what's up with that. Totally unfair side effect. That being said, there's not much that actually scares me. In other words, I'm no "chicken". It certainly takes more than a "BEST BY" date to discourage me. I mean, the rolls were frozen, after all. "BEST BY" is a recommendation. I reasoned that at the very worst, the quality would have diminished to inedible, in which case, we'd eat leftovers. Not only am a somewhat fearless, I'm also pretty darn frugal. I hated to throw these out. When life gives you lemons, make lemonade. And when life gave me 3 year old dinner rolls, I decided that we needed pizza bombs. (If you raised your eyebrows at that last sentence, it's okay. I'm laughing at myself.)

I began the Pizza Bomb preparations by spraying a baking sheet with non-stick cooking spray, then laying out the hard balls of dough to thaw.

While the rolls thawed, I gathered the rest of my ingredients: butter, marinara (or pizza sauce), mozzarella sticks, pepperoni, Parmesan, garlic salt, and Italian seasoning. You can choose other fillings, but I was keeping it simple.

Then I placed half a stick of butter into my cast iron skillet to melt on the stove top. You can also add minced garlic (just be careful not to burn it) or a sprinkle of garlic salt. You really just want the bottom of the skillet to be coated with butter so that the "bombs" don't stick. Pour off the excess melted butter into a dish so that you can use it to brush the tops of the rolls once assembled.

Once the rolls are no longer frozen, rolls them into a 4-5 inch diameter circle.

Spread about a teaspoon of sauce in the center of the roll, taking care not to get the sauce too close to the edges. If you get the sauce on the edges of the "tiny pizza" it will be challenging to seal when you attempt to make it into a "bomb". This is evidenced in the video clip. Oops. (Keep scrolling to click the link to that clip.) I also placed a piece of pepperoni and a chunk of cheese equal to 1/3 of a mozzarella stick in the center of each roll.

Bring up the sides of the roll to meet in the middle and pinch to seal.

Then fold up the opposite sides and pinch to seal any openings.Check out the clip below for a demo. Disclaimer: This is my first attempt in years at a demonstration clip for this blog. My 8 year old encouraged me to film the steps and served as camera woman. I hope to make more for upcoming posts, WITH IMPROVEMENTS! For example, next time we'll try it in wide-angle....Here I am assembling one of these Pizza Bombs.

Arrange the pizza bombs in the skillet with a little space between each to allow them to rise. I fit 15 into my skillet. Behind the scenes note: I made extras and baked them in a buttered 8-inch round pan, which will also work if you don't have access to a skillet.

Cover the skillet with plastic wrap at set aside to let the rolls rise. I recommend spraying a little cooking spray on the side of the plastic that will be in contact with the rolls to prevent sticking. Let rise in a warm place until doubled, about an hour. Then brush with the remaining melted butter, sprinkle liberally with garlic salt, Parmesan, and Italian seasoning.

Bake at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes until golden brown.

I apologize that I don't have any photos of these final steps. I could swear that I did, but they are nowhere to be found on my camera roll. Possibly my SnapChat filter borrowing, selfie-taking kiddos accidentally deleted them? Hmmm.

They really do turn out perfectly. Even with expired dough! Not that I'm condoning or promoting the use of expired products. Safety first, friends!When in doubt, throw it out! When I made them again, with dough straight from the grocery, the result was the same. Perfectly fluffy, gooey, and most importantly, delicious!

They should look like this when they come out of the oven.

Now, tear into those puppies and enjoy! My family likes to dip them in pizza sauce.

Grease a baking sheet or parchment paper. Place frozen rolls on prepared surface to allow thawing. Just thaw until no longer frozen and slightly soft to the touch. (They should still feel cool to touch.)

Melt 1/2 stick (1/4 cup) of butter in the bottom of a cast iron skillet. Add garlic. Leaving a coating on the bottom of the skillet, pour off excess butter into a dish, reserve for later.

Once thawed, flatten dinner roll dough to a 4-5 inch diameter. Top with 1 teaspoon of pizza sauce, pepperoni, and piece of mozzarella. Bring up sides and pinch to seal, creating a round shape or "bomb". Place in prepared skillet, leaving a little space between each roll for expansion.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Once the skillet is filled with pizza bombs, cover and let rise until doubled, approximately 1 hour.

Gently brush with remaining butter, sprinkle with additional garlic salt, seasoning, and Parmesan. Bake for approximately 20 minutes, until the tops are golden brown and the rolls sound "hollow" when you tap on them.

Let cool 5 minutes or more. Serve with additional pizza sauce.

Notes:

* If you don't have an iron skillet, these can be made in a round cake pan, springform, or even mass-produced on a baking sheet. Simply treat with melted butter and garlic first.

* You can be creative with the fillings. Think mini-Stromboli! Italian sausage, mushroom, onion, olives...you just don't want to over-stuff because they need to seal. Also, keep in mind that veggies create moisture as they bake and you don't want the rolls to get soggy. I might recommend sautéing veggies before using as a filling. Enjoy, friends!

Saturday, December 10, 2016

This Stuffed Cabbage Casserole is the best thing I have made all week. In fact, it is SO good that I knew I needed to share it here. Every single member of my family ate it and enjoyed it. Some even went back for seconds. When that happens, I know that a recipe is a keeper.

But here's the thing- this isn't a speedy weeknight dinner. I chose this recipe because I was craving stuffed cabbage. And it seemed to me that boiling cabbage leaves, making a tasty filling, then rolling up each leaf, individually, with that filling...only to bake them after all of that work would be super time consuming. Instead, I opted for this seemingly simpler version that employs all of the elements of stuffed cabbage. In fact, I always go with "unstuffed" cabbage type recipes. Over the years I've featured two such recipes on this blog: Stuffed Cabbage Soup and an Un-Stuffed Cabbage Skillet. Both recipes did come together quickly and did not disappoint, and so, with a history of positive experiences with the "un-stuffed" cabbage, I decided that this recipe was the "way to go" to satisfy my craving. And I'm not sorry. If you love stuffed cabbage, you'll love this recipe. Maybe you'll even love it more...

While I had optimistically eliminated the stuffing step in the interest of efficiency, this week's fabulous stuffed cabbage casserole still had lots of other steps happening. There was bacon frying and rice cooking and cabbage chopping and meat browning and sauce making and then....THEN....the baking. About halfway through preparation, I thought to myself, "I wonder if I could have stuffed cabbage leaves by now?" But I wouldn't know, because in truth, I've never made authentic stuffed cabbage.I'm not saying that this recipe is time-consuming to discourage any of you, dear readers. It really is totally worth it. This is one of those recipes that I know I will make again. What I'm saying is, this recipe is better suited for a Sunday dinner than say, a busy Wednesday night. Or maybe make it ahead and then serve it up on a busy weeknight.

There you go. Long disclaimer over. You've been warned. Um. Krista? Yeah?A simple "This casserole takes a good bit of time to prepare." would have been sufficient. I could have made the thing in the time it took me to read the introduction to this recipe.Sorry about that. Being direct and concise in my writing (and conversations) is not really one of my strengths. Perhaps a New Year's resolution may be in order. #goalsIn the meantime, feel free to use the down ↓ arrow key to scroll on by and get to the recipe. 😊

Now, let's get on to how this recipe came together. I began by cooking the rice and frying bacon.

While the rice cooks and the bacon fries, start fine-chopping or shredding the cabbage. You want to use a 2 lb. head of cabbage.

Next you'll want to brown 2 lbs. of lean beef with a diced onion in a skillet. I failed to take a picture of the browning of the beef and onion. Be sure to salt and pepper the beef as it cooks. Once it's browned, drain the meat. While the meat drained, I added my spices and garlic to the skillet and heated them until fragrant.

Then add the browned beef, rice, and 1 can of tomato sauce to the skillet. Bring to a boil, then simmer for at least 5 minutes.

Now it's time to assemble the casserole.

You want to layer the casserole as follows: cabbage, sauce (beef, tomato, rice mixture), cabbage, sauce, and end with cabbage on top. I sprinkled salt and pepper over each layer of cabbage too. Smooth the sauce evenly over each layer of cabbage.

Top with the remaining can of tomato sauce.

Smooth the sauce.

Now cover and bake for 45 minutes.

Remove the casserole from the oven and sprinkle with cheese. Then return the dish to the oven for another 10 minutes until the cheese is completely melted and the casserole is bubbling nicely around the sides.

Voila!

The recipe says that it serves 12, so I divided it accordingly. Truth be told, with people heading back for seconds, I'd say it serves more like 6-8. So much for serving size! Ooops.

And there you have it, a relatively healthy, awesomely delicious dinner that your family will thank you for. At least mine did...

Here's my over-simplified nutrition analysis for this dish:

Cabbage=a good source of dietary fiber, Vitamin C and K

Ground beef (I used 90/10)= a lean source of protein

Tomato sauce=Vitamin A and C and lycopene

Brown rice= a whole grain! Lots of good stuff including Vitamin B6 and Manganese

Cheese=Calcium

Bacon=who cares if bacon is healthy?!? Bacon is delicious. Bacon=meat candy. And it totally makes this dish. 😃

Directions

1.Preheat oven to 375°. In a large skillet, fry bacon until crisp. Remove from skillet, drain and crumble. Set aside. Wipe excess grease from the skillet. Add garlic and spices, heat and stir until fragrant. Add ground beef to the skillet. Cook beef and onion over medium to medium-high heat, crumbling beef, until meat is no longer pink. Drain. Salt and pepper to taste. Stir in one can of tomato sauce and rice. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer, covered, 5 or more minutes.

2. Layer a third of the cabbage in a greased 13x9-in. baking dish. Top with half of the meat mixture. Spread evenly and smooth over the top of the cabbage. Repeat layers; top with remaining cabbage. Pour remaining can of tomato sauce over top.

Tuesday, November 1, 2016

Now when you can't decide if you're craving a brownie or a cookie, you don't have to! This is exactly what happened on a rare lazy, rainy, family-movie-marathon-Sunday in our household. We were all craving some kind of home-baked, decadent treat, but couldn't agree upon a recipe. My family was lobbying for brownies, but I had cookies on the brain. We compromised with this. Best of both worlds. And it was perfect, because these are so easy. No need to take tray after tray of cookies out of the oven.

I found a recipe from "Pinch of Yum" that offered excellent details for chocolate chip cookie brownies. The author had clearly done her "brookie" research, and her post was very helpful to the success of this recipe. After reading all of the instructions and insights, I altered the recipe to fit my craving.

On the day that I made these, I was craving candy corn and dry roasted peanuts. Around these parts, at this time of year, one can often find a delectable mix of peanuts and candy corn set out at parties and tailgates. It's that whole "sweet and salty for the win" combo. I had this in mind as I gathered my baking ingredients. And so...rather than chocolate chips for the cookie layer, I opted for peanut butter chips and candy corn.

The beauty of these is that you can use any brownie and cookie recipe combo to customize them to your liking. This time I went with the Triple Fudge Ghiradelli brownie mix and the peanut butter chip/candy corn cookie mix. (And it was INCREDIBLE!) But the possibilities are endless. I've seen them with Oatmeal Scotchies baked on top of brownies and I imagine that peanut butter cookies with chopped Reese's cups stirred in would make for an amazing peanut butter/chocolate combination. Or hey, maybe stir in or top with some chopped up Halloween candy. You've gotta get rid of it before the Christmas candy starts rolling in, right? Be creative!

Let's gather the ingredients. A quick glance shows that you just need a brownie mix, oil, water, and egg for the brownie layer and ingredients for a small batch of cookie dough + whatever stir-ins you choose. In this case, I selected peanut butter chips and candy corn.

To get started, line an 8x8 or 9x9 baking pan with foil and spray with a little non-stick cooking spray or grease with butter.

Then prepare the brownie mix and pour it into the pan.

Prepare the cookie portion, just as you normally make cookies- cream the butter and sugars, add the egg and vanilla, beat in the dry ingredients until just mixed.

Finally, stir in the chips.

Drop the cookie dough by spoonful over the brownie batter. Or find a determined, brownie-lovin' 3 year old to complete this step for you. I recommend the latter. It was pretty entertaining.

You only want to use about 2/3 of the cookie batter. I took the remaining batter and baked it into 5 or 6 cookies. This was a really good thing, since these brookies took about an hour to bake and at least 20 minutes to cool to the point that they were ready to cut. Conversely, cookies only take 10 minutes to bake. I used the cookies to satiate the hungry crowd who was growing increasingly impatient for the brookies as the smell of them baking filled the house.

Gently press the cookie dough into the brownie batter and smooth it a bit.

Our finishing touch was the candy corn. My pre-schooler and I arranged a little over 1/4 cup on top and then gently pressed them into the dough for a festive fall twist.

Pop the pan into a 350 degree oven. The recipe recommended baking for 40 minutes. When I checked at 40 minutes, they were still really "jiggly" in the center. I continued baking them for another 20 minutes, checking at 5 minute intervals, until the center was a little more "set". Not completely firm- I do love my brownies pretty gooey- but the cookie layer should be baked so that a toothpick would come out clean if you tested it.

This was a very long wait for a certain young man...

The recipe also recommended covering with aluminum foil to allow the brookies to bake without getting too brown. I followed "Pinch of Yum's" suggestion, and baked them for 20 minutes uncovered, then 10 minutes covered, then I uncovered them for another 5-10, and finally I covered them up for the remaining baking time.

Hey! Maybe that's why they took so long to bake?!? I kept opening the oven! Ha!

Mine came out of the oven looking like this. Now you just need to let them sit and cool for a bit. I'd say 20-30 minutes is ideal.

Ugh. More waiting!

I cooled mine on a baking rack to allow cool air to get underneath and speed things along.

Finally, a little over two hours after I announced, "I'm baking brownies!" these were ready to cut and serve.

And let me tell you, they are worth the wait!

I actually had to take the last 9 over to the neighbor's today. I just couldn't stop eating them. Every time I walked by the plate I'd break off another piece. And that bite would be so good that I'd find a reason to walk by the plate again for another piece. And another. And another. My will power was just no match for the mighty "brookie". And so I made them my neighbors' problem. Aren't I thoughtful? (Insert evil Halloween laugh here).

Okay, so here's the recipe as adapted by me. If you have a chance, pop over to "Pinch of Yum" and read the original author's post. After all, she tested it like 4 times as she was perfecting the recipe. Once you try these amazing treats, I promise, you will join me in thanking her for the hard work!

With an electric mixer, cream butter and sugars in a small mixing bowl. Add vanilla and egg; cream again until smooth. Add the flour, baking soda, and salt. Stir gently until incorporated. Stir in chips. Store in refrigerator until ready to use.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare brownie batter as directed. Pour batter into a foil lined and greased 8x8 or 9x9 baking dish. Scatter pieces of cookie dough over the top of the brownie batter. In my 8x8 square pan, I was able to get about ⅔ of the cookie dough to fit over the brownies and I just saved the rest for regular cookies. Press gently on the dough just until it starts to sink down into the batter a little bit and smooth slightly. Arrange candy corn evenly over the top, pressing gently into the cookie dough.

Bake for 40 minutes, then check for doneness, covering with foil if you need to keep the cookies from getting too brown on top. Let stand for 20-30 minutes and cut into pieces for serving.

Beware of taking these out too early because the cookies look brown - usually when I do that, the brownies are still underdone and they sink down in the middle. I found that it was easiest to alternate baking them covered and uncovered. I did the first 20 minutes uncovered, the next 10 minutes covered, and the last 5 minutes uncovered. This allows the brownies to bake without the cookies getting too brown. I've also taken foil and just made a cover around the edges so the middle can bake without burning the tops of the edges.

Thursday, October 27, 2016

Stuffed shells, albeit a little more time consuming than say, lasagna...and much more time consuming than spaghetti with sauce from a jar (aka what I serve for dinner at least once a month), are a big hit when they make an appearance on our dinner table. This recipe gets my personal "Mom's Seal of Approval" award for several reasons. 1) I can make them ahead, and then pop them into the oven when I get home from work or school activities. 2) Everyone eats these without complaining. 3) They are delicious. They actually remind me of my favorite lasagna recipe. 4) They are fairly cost effective- not counting the salad and bread, the cost per serving was $2.09 for 6 servings. In reality, my 2 youngest did not eat a full serving portion, so there were enough leftovers for 2 addition meals. *Grocery prices based on my Ohio ALDI receipts. 5) They are low calorie- for stuffed shells, that is. With a few lighter ingredient substitutions, these come in at 430 calories per serving. Very reasonable for a flavor-packed, filling, cheesy dinner!

Here's how it all came together:

Count out 24 shells, or about half of the package. Or cook the whole package. You can always use the extra noodles to make a different recipe later in the week. Or boil them all and double the recipe so that you can deliver the other dish to a friend who could use a night off from making dinner. Or freeze the extra pan for a future meal. Or hand out individual shells to trick or treaters. Or.... you get the idea. I cooked the whole box.

Brown up a pound of hamburger with an onion. Salt and pepper to taste. Drain the excess fat.

Then stir in a can of tomato paste.

And 2 cups of hot water.

Add in bouillon, oregano, and basil. Bring it up to a nice simmer and keep it there, uncovered, for 30 minutes.

Whilst your sauce simmers and the shells boil, go ahead and mix up the ingredients for the filling.

Once the shells are ready to come out of the water, roll out some parchment paper. Then drain the noodles and place them open and face down on the parchment. Why face down? This is my little trick to keep them from rolling closed when I am trying to fill them. If they cool this way, they are easier to fill.

See?!? Now just take a small spoon and add a scoop or two of filling to each shell. If you're feeling ambitious you can pipe it in from a plastic baggie or pastry bag. However, I think this is just as quick and easy.

Place the filled shells in a "greased" (I used non-stick olive oil spray) 9X13 baking dish.

Now let's check back with that sauce that's been a-simmerin' away on the stovetop. This recipe made a surprisingly rich and tasty meat sauce. I was a little skeptical when reading the ingredients: Water, tomato paste, bouillon.... But seriously, this sauce was awesome! Now is the time to taste it and see if you need to add any additional seasonings. I finished mine off with a little garlic salt after taste-testing.

Spread the sauce over the stuffed shells and bake them covered for 30 minutes at 350 degrees until bubbling around the edges. If you make this ahead and refrigerate, you might need to bake longer, checking to make sure the center is nice and hot. Then uncover and sprinkle with cheese and bake some more until the cheese is melted.

It should look something like this when it emerges from your oven. YUM!

We plated ours up with a spinach salad and some garlic bread. And everyone was happy around our dinner table. #winning